Playwright: Laura Jacqmin. At: At Play Productions at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago. Phone: 312-633-0630; $20-$25. Runs through: Aug. 7
Dentists are among the most maligned wage-earners in the United States, ranking just below tax accountants and undertakers as the subject of scornful ridicule. Their very anonymity, however, is what renders their occupation the perfect microcosm for a diagnosis of the greater community whose citizens they serve and values they reflect.
The morale of the North Shore Regional Dental Society members who reluctantly check into the "Skokie Marriott" on a frigid January weekend is lower than the outside temperature. Their organization's president has recently been discovered to have been not only conducting an illicit affair with his hygienist, but—can you imagine?—allowing her to discharge her duties without a license. As the convention progresses through seminars on insurance fraud and drug abuse within the industry and huckstering by vendors peddling their spurious/frivolous products, the attendees grow increasingly morose over their calling and resentful of their leadership. But despite their malaise, when their individual ethics are tested, each one—the humble and mighty alike—does the right thing. At the end of the weekend, all depart uplifted—or at least, resigned to the human imperfections inherent in their profession.
Whatever its allegorical perceptions, there is no denying the insight and affection lavished on this portrait of healers as indispensable as they are unappreciated striving to keep the faith. Laura Jacqmin's Ski Dubai, featured at the 2009 First Look showcase, revealed the young playwright to be a shrewd observer of the slippery infrastructure defining capitalism as it is practiced today. Under Megan Shuchman's lively-paced direction, the six actors playing a multitude of roles immerse us immediately into its universe and the sharply-etched characters who inhabit it to render each brief scene a free-standing parable in its own right.
A pair of smug harridans swim in the hotel pool as they trash the chief officer's erring assistant/mistress and are upbraided by a feisty dog-paddler. Three middle-aged docs wax rhapsodic in the adjacent mall's L.L. Bean. Impassioned rants about the importance of flossing and the dangers of over-bleaching. The entire company raising its alcohol-soaked voices on karaoke night in a rousing chorus of "Novocain For the Soul" and "Crooked Teeth." ( Playgoers arriving early will enjoy Christopher Kriz's clever pre-show mix. ) Whatever the image lingering in your memory, you will leave vowing to bestow a well-deserved hug on your own dentist at your next appointment.
